There is only so much cabbage soup I can eat, now what?

In the kitchen at Vaucluse House

Cabbage in the kitchen at Vaucluse House. Photo © James Horan for Sydney Living Museums

We’re gearing up for our FREE! Autumn Harvest celebration at Rouse Hill House and Farm this weekend, and we’ve been foraging through the Rouse Hill family cookery books and manuscript recipes to bring you a taste of life at Rouse Hill during colonial times and in the early 1900s. Inspired by the Harvest program, resident foodie, Jacky Dalton has been experimenting with tradition the of preserving cabbage Continue reading

D’ough!

Bread to strengthen mans heart

"Bread to strengthen mans heart", frontispiece in Eliza Acton, The English bread-book for domestic use, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, London, 1857. Google Books

In these days of supermarkets, bakeries and bread makers we can easily forget how the simple act of baking bread has been a feature of life for thousands of years. Continue reading

Insider stories

Cookbooks research

Jacqui Newling researching in the Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection. Photo Scott Hill © Sydney Living Museums

My current research project (the outcomes of which will be revealed in the coming months – watch this space) has seen me revisit some wonderful personal accounts from Australians who lived ‘ordinary’, but to us, extraordinary, lives.  Continue reading